A few days ago, someone asked me in the comments section if I was going to review horror movies again. And the answer is YES! Those of you who have regularily visited my site and been reading my comics, have already noticed that I’m a horror movie guy. Horror is my life.

I ran a norwegian horror movie site some years back where I wrote in-depth reviews, but in the end I found it hard to combine this with my comic projects and dayjob. It simply got too much, and I had to focus more on my cartoonist career that I later ended up working with on full time, which has always been the dream of my life.

Still: horror movies have been a passion since I was a kid, and the urge to share my thoughts about these movies on my site has always been there. Now that I’ve recently launched a new blog and the Halloween season is right round the corner I thought: why the hell not. These won’t be very long reviews, but should give you the idea of what the movie is about and if it might be up your alley, all depending on which horror movies you prefer.

I will review a horror movie every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in october, so it will be 13 in all. Something weird, something obscure and something less obscure, and a classic in the middle. I will also try to include some movies that haven’t been reviewed a thousand times already.

Answer: From a lot of places. I can get inspiration from music, movies, other comics, travelling, nature…from life itself, so to speak.

QUESTION 2: What was the first horror movie you remember watching, and how did you react to it?

Answer: «Gremlins II», I think. To be honest, I don’t remember exactly how I reacted to it, but I remember that it didn’t scare me. Today, I find the «Gremlins» movies to be fun and somewhat childish entertainment (and I prefer the first movie, seen it a lot of times 🙂 ). If I were to think of the first horror movie I saw that actually scared me, however, I think that would be «The Changeling».

QUESTION 3: Have you ever really looked forward to see a movie, only to be disappointed?

Answer: Yes…«Zombieland» . This was a movie I looked really forward to, and had high hopes for, but I ended up getting really disappointed instead. I expected a zombie-movie with focus on the zombies and the actual “apocalypse” feel that is often portrayed in them, but instead I felt that it fell kind of flat. Yes, the “apocalypse” is there, but the characters seemed to have no problem finding new weapons and more food. Overall, I just didn’t get the hype on this one.

QUESTION 4: Do you read manga/watch anime?

Answer: Before I met Vanja, I was one of those who thought manga and anime primarily dealt with things like PokeMon and “magical girls” with fluffy dresses and extreme high-pitched voices. I found out that there’s a lot more to it than this, though, as Vanja started introducing me to some gems in the “genre”. I think that some of the best horror comics comes from Japan, like «Uzumaki» by Junji Ito, and the comics from Hideshi Hino to mention some. I also like the movies made by Studio Ghibli (R.I.P. by the way, but Studio Ponoc looks like it’s going to bring that beautiful 2D-animation further). We also recently watched «Attack On Titan» , season 1, beautifully animated and with lots of blood and gore, too 😁

As mentioned in an earlier post, “Great Times Ahead” , Vanja and I are working on a new collaboration project. While I didn’t mention much in the post, I did reveal in the comments that it would be a game project. We are still not wanting to reveal too much just yet. It’s going to be a fairly large project with a lot of work involved, and we would like to get a bit ahead with all the work first. However, in the meantime I’ll post some concept art.

Here’s some of my level concept artwork:

Below are also some screenshots from the animated intro scene that Vanja’s been working on:

As mentioned earlier, I finished my “Pinups From Hell” project when I reached 100 pinups. I did this because I was afraid it would become too repetitive, and found 100 to be a nice number to call it quits.

However, I still like to draw babes, in different genres, not just devil girls. So I decided to create a new gallery section for these ladies, simply called “Pinups” !

This gallery section now contains 5 drawings, and 2 of them were added today 🙂

Vanja and I went to see “It” on friday, directed by Andy Muschietti (previously known for the horror movie “Mama” ).

To be honest, I was a little sceptical to this movie at first. When I saw one of the first pictures from the movie, with Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, I couldn’t help but thinking “yikes, he looks like a character from Looney Tunes”! (Probably because of those big buck teeth). And I suspected it would end up being way too cheesy and that Bill would not live up to Tim Curry’s previous performance as Pennywise in “It” from 1990.

I am happy to have been totally wrong, though.

Bill Skarsgård’s performance as Pennywise well exceeded my expectations. He was just the right amount of cheesy (he/it is a clown, after all) and right amount of creepy, in order to set the right atmosphere. Instead of trying to copy Tim Curry’s famous version of the character, Bill did his own thing. Just like Heath Ledger did with The Joker.

Now, as for the movie itself, I really enjoyed the “Goonies”-vibes in it, and the 80’s theme (one of the young actors are also from “Stranger Things” , a series I also really liked that had a strong 80’s feel to it).

While I have seen the 1990’s version, I haven’t read the book, so I can make no comparison between them. But like the 1990s version it comes in two parts, and I’m looking forward to the second part.

A lot of things have happened in my life recently, and these have all been very positive for me. I can’t remember the last time I felt this excited, happy and satisfied! 😀

As you have probably already guessed, some of these things that I’m talking about, is new projects. And while it is far too early to reveal much yet (other than that there will be a new collaboration project with my dear Vanja) I have a little concept art drawing to share:

As you can see, it’s going to be jungle-themed. Like I said, it’s in very early progress, but stay tuned and more info will come!

We’ve also just gotten back home from a very nice trip to Trondheim (my place of birth), and on our last day there, wednesday (yesterday), we enjoyed some cake and fruit in the evening. Yum! 😋

The cake is called “Pavlova”, a cake made of meringue, cream and berries. We went to bed with a full stomach yesterday night, that’s for sure!

Alrighty, time for one of these! A list of completely random questions some people have asked me. Just for fun 😋

Here we go!

QUESTION 1: Are you a cat or a dog person?

Answer: A cat person. Without a doubt. That does not mean I dislike dogs, not at all! I do like dogs, especially pugs, they’re adorable creatures. But cats are a bit closer to my heart. I think this is because I’ve heard and witnessed so much abuse against cats (people treating them poorly, dumping them, etc.) Some people say cats are “arrogant”. Yes, they are independent and not easily manipulated, but if someone think badly of an animal because they cannot control them, that probably tells more about this person than the animal…and cats do show affection, and a lot of it too, it’s just more subtle.

QUESTION 2: Have you ever been tricked by someone?

Answer: Who haven’t been? But the most elaborate “trick” someone pulled on me, dates back to around 2001-2002. It was back in my high school days, where I got an e-mail from a funny hillbilly-boy from a place called “Skatval” here in Norway, and he called himself “Mons-Ivar”. He had a sister, her name was “Lise”. They had their own websites, with photos and info about them (the website for “Mons-Ivar” is still up, actually). I started chatting with “Lise” as well, where she often hinted a certain interest for me. At this time, I was that kind of guy that had never been with a girl and was over the moon that a girl actually showed interest. This went on for weeks. However, things came to a halt when I and an ex-friend of mine (who was then one of my best friends) searched for these people on the public tax records (called “Skattelistene”), where I found out that these people didn’t exist. After this, I never heard anything back from “Mons-Ivar” and “Lise”, and I suspected my ex-friend to be behind it all. I tried to confront him, and even told him I wouldn’t be mad if he just admitted it. He didn’t, however, he just got angry that I accused him for it. Many years later, however, I saw that his name was written on the “Mons-Ivar” website, listed as the “web designer” for the site (and his name is still there to this day, hidden in text that’s the same color as the background). So, yeah, you could say that this was one of the more elaborate tricks/pranks someone have pulled on me. And to be honest, it would have been a pretty funny one too, which I could’ve laughed heartily at today, if it wasn’t for all the other things that followed which now just make me see this as more unsettling than funny.

QUESTION 3: Do you believe in ghosts?

Answer: This question is a little bit like the “Do you believe in UFO’s?” question. Yes, I believe in UFO’s. It means “Unidentified Flying Objects”. I believe people see unidentified flying objects which are caused by various things (like for example ball lightning). But I do not believe they are flying saucers with little green men in them. It’s the same for ghosts. Yes, I believe the phenomenon exists, and yes, I believe people see/experience “ghosts”. But I am not convinced they are the spirits of deceased people. As a horror movie fan, the concept of ghosts are often a theme, and while many films use the standard theory of them being spirits of the dead, some films in recent times (like the “Conjuring” movies and the “Annabelle” movies for example) portray them as demons that manipulates people into believing they are the ghost of an innocent little girl for example. In my comic series “Sally The Ghost Hunter“, I simply portray ghosts as the classic spirits of the dead. I think I may explore the theories/concepts around ghosts a bit more in upcoming “Bella Mortis Presents” stories, though. Even though I personally don’t know what to think of the phenomenon of ghosts, I still enjoy a ghost horror story.

QUESTION 4: Are you a satanist? You make all these drawings with blood and gore and use upside-down crosses and occult symbols in many of them, so you must be, right?

Answer: I specialize in the horror genre, but that doesn’t mean I have to believe in it or treat it like anything else than what it is: a fantasy. Jeez Louise, they’re just drawings! I often draw occult symbols because the devil/satan/beelzebub/gamle-erik or whathaveyou is often part of the horror genre, together with blood & gore, monsters, ghosts, demons, freaks and all those things I draw. This does not make me a devil worshipper or a satanist. Just someone who enjoys the horror genre.

QUESTION 5: Have you ever had a strange thing happen to you that scared you?

Answer: I have experienced a few things that scared me at first (although some of them could be explained later on), but there was this one thing that happened several years ago. I still lived with my parents at that time, and we were the only ones in the house. We were all sitting in the living room, watching a movie. Then the phone rang (the home phone). My mother went to pick it up, only to look strangely at me, because the number showing on the display was that of my cell phone. We just looked at it, and didn’t know wether to pick it up or not, but then it stopped ringing. I went into my room to check if my phone was there as usual (I suspected I might have lost it), but it was there and the call logs didn’t show that it had tried to call the home phone. It didn’t really scare me, but it was a bit creepy. It never happened again, though.